Poetry

Stephanie Wolfe Murray, founder of the Scotland-based publishing house—Canongate, died on 24 June 2017. She was both friend and inspiration. A memorial event was held at Edinburgh International Book Festival for which Alexander McCall Smith wrote the following poem. He shared the stage with fellow writers Tom Pow, Mairi Hedderwick and Alasdair Gray and many from […]

When you are with somebody you love the smallest, smallest things can be so important, so amusing because love transforms the world, everything. And was that what had happened?

Alexander McCall Smith, The Right Attitude to Rain

We shall change all that...because it is possible to change the world, if one is determined enough, and if one sees with sufficient clarity just what has to be changed.

Alexander McCall Smith, The Kalahari Typing School for Men

If your ceiling should fall down, then you have lost a room, but gained a courtyard. Think of it that way.